Church in Juárez begins erasing message on mountain

The new message on the Juárez mountains was still visible at right Tuesday. The other message has been on the mountain for many years. Juárez officials ordered a church to stop painting the second message and to remove it in five working days. The church wants an extension. (VICTOR CALZADA — EL PASO TIMES)

Members from La Luz del Mundo church on Tuesday began erasing the new and massive white-lettered message they started painting on the Juárez mountainside last week.

After a day's work, only two letters were slightly less visible: The rest of the message was still there.

"If it took us three weeks to do it, we consider it just for authorities to give us at least three weeks to erase it," said Sonia Pedroza, spokeswoman for the project and a member of La Luz del Mundo church in Juárez.

Last week, Juárez officials stopped the church from painting a second message on the mountain because the group did not get a city permit beforehand. The city gave the church five working days to erase the message. The five day deadline was Tuesday, according to city officials.

Church members say they have until Friday to clean it up and argued that they were officially notified Thursday. The group is also looking for a deadline extension.

Pedroza said church members on Tuesday began turning some of painted rocks around as a first step of the cleaning process. The final plan includes sanding the rocks to their original color.

The cleaning began late Monday right after church members, dressed in white, used white bed sheets to temporarily complete the intended phrase, which was set to honor the church's leader, Samuel Joaquín Flores.

The message was supposed to say "50 años de su apostolado S.J.F. (Samuel Joaquín Flores)" — 50 years of his apostolate S.J.F.

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When the message writing was stopped it read, "50 años apostol S.J.F."

As of late Tuesday, the letters "o" and "s" were less noticeable.

Pedroza said church members have applied for a deadline extension from the city's Department of Urban Development in hope of having more time to erase the message.

"We left it up to the agency to decide how much time it is willing to give us," she said, referring to the deadline extension. "We anticipate an answer (today)."

The new message on the Juárez mountains is still visible. It was going to honor the leader of a church in Juárez. ( Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)

The director of the agency, Eduardo Varela Díaz, was not available Tuesday to confirm if the church got the additional time.

If an extension is not granted, fines will be assessed, city officials said.

Pedroza said church members are not disappointed that the message has to go down.

"We accomplished more than we were expecting. Our goal was only to spread the message to Juárez, but it went international," she said.

The new message was being placed next to the church's other message, which encourages people to read the Bible and has been up for years.

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